Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. There she goes, the month of March. I don’t recall the beginning of the month, but I recall that it was blustery, darker, and we had considerably more snow that we have now.

I know that these are the end times and that climate change (which is our own doing) is going to take us down. My hope is that the planet continues to live on, and that evolving life forms create a more harmonious environment. We humans are anything but harmonious. We kill one other, and we are killing the ecosystem. And we are aware of this. But we aren’t doing anything about this, nor are we acknowledging that our growing numbers are contributing to the problem.

There are those who have babies who don’t care. And there are those who do have babies who do care but think that their children will reverse the trend. I don’t see the latter as possible – these children have the knowledge that something is amiss, but they don’t do anything about it. This is because they end up feeling powerless. And, let us not forget that all children grow up to be consumers.

So, we are having one of the earliest springs ever, and the earliest spring that I have ever seen in Alaska. There is plenty of light, temps are in the 50s in the afternoons, and the winds are moderate. Of course, all we humans want to do after a long winter is bask in the great outdoors. I once heard someone who was enjoying good weather down in southeast Alaska say, “Climate change? Bring it on!” This pissed me off. What’s happening here is that our being comfortable supersedes our concern for the planet.

For example, today, at the packing clinic, everyone was happily sitting around in the sun. And not a single person expressed concern about this being an abnormal state of affairs. This scares me. Of course, if the temps soar this summer and there are fires in our area, people will then become apprehensive. And it may very well be that from this point on in the year, that we get no rain. Or, it might start raining and rain for days on end. We just don’t know. It seems like a roll of the climate change dice.

And so here we are, getting ready to head on down the Lower 48, on a two month pack trip. I do not think the fire danger will be high where we are, but it may be pretty warm. There are places now that are now uninhabitable in the summer. Parts of Arizona come to mind. So, at the summer’s end, we will return here, which in the great scope of temperature change, might be the best place to be. Yes, we’ll all be affected, but some of us will be less affected than others.

I’m as guilty as everyone else in that I spent the day outside and enjoyed the good weather. But at least I realize that something is amiss here, and that yes, we humans are responsible for this. It’s a start.

Next: 90. 4/1/19: A Round Corner